


Kris and The Underground

by Oiral_Insanity



Category: Deltarune (Video Game), Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Adopted Sibling Relationship, Chara (Undertale) Is Dead, Cross-Posted on Wattpad, Crossing Timelines, Crossover, Gen, Nonbinary Frisk (Undertale), Nonbinary Kris (Deltarune), Post-Deltarune, Tsundere Chara (Undertale), Undertale Pacifist Route, Undertale Spoilers
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-04-01
Updated: 2019-08-28
Packaged: 2020-01-13 16:14:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 13,743
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18472489
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Oiral_Insanity/pseuds/Oiral_Insanity
Summary: Because Deltarune isn't exactly complete, the first chapter is based off one of many endings I thought Deltarune would take. This idea has also been in my head for a while.Kris and the Fun Gang have been unable to stop the Angel's Heaven from destroying the world and causing Kris to reload their save. Multiple times, actually. No matter what they did, it wasn't enough. The Angel's Heaven would always destroy them.So what happens when The Knight (Gaster) drags The Fun Gang into the void and separates them in another universe.One in which the Monsters were sent underground after a war with the humans.Now traveling with a small, silent yet flirty child, Kris has to find their friends in a new environment, where everyone they once knew now wanting their soul.Welcome to the Underground, Kris. Enjoy your stay.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This work can also be found on my Wattpad Account (Under the same username and story name, I ain't changing those).  
> I also have to (And I swear to god, I'm not happy about this) copy, paste, and edit the whole damn chapter so that it's the exact same as it is over on Wattpad. I am not happy about that, but I can't understand the Import Works right now, so I'm gonna have to get over it.  
> Otherwise, enjoy!  
> P.S. The Character Tags weren't in the order that the characters appear in the story, but it starts off with the Deltarune Characters, then Undertale Characters, and then finally that Original Undertale Character.

**The cycle continues.**

Kris had been through this situation way too many times.

Once they opened the doors that separated the ruined outside world from the bunker, The Fun Gang (Consisting of Ralsei, Susie, Lancer, Noelle, and finally themself) would comment on the condition of the broken Earth, walk North towards the now ruined Church, and come face-to-face (If it even had a face) with the Angel's Heaven.

In which it would proceed to annihilate the group.

One.

By.

One.

Over and over again.

Kris couldn't remember how many times they left the bunker to face the Apocalypse. They lost count around either the 50th or 60th time. They were stuck in a cycle.

A cycle that couldn't be broken.

Over and over again.

They lost count of how many times they said goodbye to their parents. To their own brother. To everyone in the bunker. All of the previous reloads had bunched up together into a mess that sometimes, they'd forget to even say goodbye at all.

Over and over again.

They knew how everything would turn out. The Angel's Heaven would send multiple beams of pure energy at all of them, destroying each and every one of them. There wasn't even a way to dodge them either. All they could do was die to the beams.

Over.

And.

Over.

Again.

The cycle was starting to break Kris's Power. They didn't know how long they had been in the cycle. It could have been days.

Weeks.

Months.

Hell, Years could have passed by. The cycle would always start over at the save point in the bunker.

They leave.

They die.

Over and over again. Nothing could be done about it. Only they knew what would happen.

And so did The Knight.

The Knight, otherwise now known to them as Dr. Wing Ding Gaster, had been watching the cycle from the Void. The only area untouched by the Angel's Heaven and the Reloads of Kris.

As, you know, the Void was something of a supernatural phenomenon. Not many could enter it through typical means. But enough of that, back to the story at hand. Gaster felt bad about the situation the Fun Gang were put into. A situation he accidentally created through his interactions with the Dark World. He didn't mean to have caused Jevil to go insane, or to corrupt the Spade King, or create any of the other Dark Fountains. But by the time he realized it, he was unable to return. If he were to return and attempt to fix the situation himself, he would have been attacked. Which was why he, along with an entity he encountered in the Void, created a Vessel for the entity to repair his mistakes, set things right. But then the only other entity besides the two, a human spirit named "Chara" destroyed the Vessel, telling them they couldn't choose who they were in the world. A bunch of events occurred, the Replacement Vessel (Kris) ripped the entity out of their body, some more events occurred, the entity left Kris's soul to go to another universe, allowing Kris full control of their soul again, and now here they were. Fighting a neverending battle.

A neverending, losing battle.

Over and over again.

Sometimes, you have to accept that you f*cked up.

And Gaster did. But he wasn't just going to let them suffer for however much longer Kris had left in their reloads.

He decided to give them a way out. However, it would be permanent for them. The moment he did it, the world the gang once knew would be gone forever. Destroyed for good.

But at least it wouldn't be over and over again.

Kris looked at a photograph of them and their family, back when they and Asriel were young, back when mom and dad were still together. They missed those days, and wished that they could at least go back to it. If they were able to defeat the Angel's Heaven. Only if.

"KRIS!" The shout of the Prince Goat from the Dark World shook them out of their wishing dream. "COME ON, WE MUST STOP THE ANGEL'S HEAVEN!"

 _If only it were that easy, Rals._ Kris thought to themselves as they placed the photo back behind their chestplate. Kris knew what would happen. It had happened before, it will happen again.

Over and over, they will all die. Over and over again.

The group walked forwards, towards the destroyed Church. Kris knew that this was as far as they would come, as the next thing to occur would be the damned Angel's Heaven appearing and destroying them all. They were starting to lose what little emotions they had built up from the past week. Their happiness with Susie and Lancer. Their rebuilding friendship with Noelle.

The only thing that was keeping them from completely losing it was what they had with Ralsei. They didn't understand what it was, but it felt like something they didn't want to lose a hold of.

The Fun Gang finally reached the church, and Kris prepared for the events they knew to come next.

3.

2.

1.

**Whoooosh**

The Angel's Heaven exploding into existence, destroying the church completely. Kris knew what would happen next. They would enter a **FIGHT** against the pillar of light. The pillar of light would send powerful beams at them. They die.

Rinse and re-

"Hey guys?" Susie interrupted Kris's thoughts. "Yeah?" Kris spoke, looking at Susie. _This was new, something they never encountered_ _before._

"What's this black stuff doing here?" Susie replied, causing everyone to look down. At Susie's feet was a puddle of goop.

They recognized it as the goop that was on The Knight, who explained that it was residue of the Void.

Which meant it wasn't good.

Suddenly, the Void Goop spread outwards, latching onto the feet of the gang. Kris cursed The Knight, why were they getting involved all of a sudden?

Then they started sinking into the goop. Now this was just making Kris even more pissed. _Are you just trying to make me die a different way, you bastard?_ Kris thought as they were now up to their chest in the goop.

The goop began to latch itself onto the arms and faces of the group. Noelle was desperately holding on to Lancer as they were the first to be consumed by the Void Goop. Kris grabbed hold of Ralsei's hand as they were the next to be consumed by the Void. And then finally Susie.

The Void had swallowed them whole.

And the cycle was broken in their world.

**Thump**

Kris opens their eyes to a dark cavern, the only source of light coming from a hole at the top.

They felt themselves being on a bed of flowers, and quite rejuvenated as well.

 _How long had they been in the Void?_ Kris asked themself. They remember during their conversation with The Knight that the Void doesn't have a sense of time flowing through.

Kris picked themselves off of the bed and looked around, becoming frightened. Frightened by the fact that their friend were gone. They knew that their friends wouldn't just up and leave like this, which meant either they had been separated by the Void...

Or they were the only survivor.

They definitely didn't want to be the latter, as that would kill them inside. Losing their friends like that for real. They didn't realize that they had been moving around when they heard another **THUMP!**

They looked to the source of that thump, finding to their surprise a human child in a blue and magenta jumpsuit had landed where they once laid. Had they stayed there, the injuries to the both of them would have been horrible.

A bit funny to the eye, the child's jumpsuit looked like the cape that was draped over Kris's right shoulder.

And guessing from the fact that Kris fell a short distance due to the Void while the child had to have fallen from the source of the light, the child was most definitely D-E-A-D dead.

That was, until the child let out a loud gasp of air, frightening Kris of the fact that a simple child survived such a fall from such a large height. Kris watched as the kid painfully picked themselves off of their own back and attempted to stand up, failing due to the lack of balance caused by the fall.

"Hey, hey, hey," Kris said as they scrambled towards the kid. "Let me help you out!" Kris proceeded to pick them up and placed them on their back.

The weight of the kid adding a few pounds on their back, Kris proceeded towards the only exit to the room they were in. They stopped to notice the symbol at the top of the door.

The Deltarune. Not the first time they've seen it. Might not be the last. They proceeded forward into the next room...

To come face to face with a flower.

"Howdy! I'm Flowey. Flowey the Flower!"

A talking flower.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Upon which they encounter Flowey and reunite with Toriel(?)

Well, this was definitely something.

The first living thing they meet besides the human child was a golden flower that has a face and can talk.

Not typical for a monster, but Kris met stranger ones before.

"You guys must be new to the Underground, huh?" The flower, who called itself Flowey, continued. "Welp, I guess little ol' me will have to teach ya."

The area around the trio went dark and Kris and the Kid's souls popped out. Kris knew all too well about this, but decided to keep quiet. Better to surprise the flower by revealing the information they already knew before he does.

"You see those hearts?" Flowey spoke, gesturing at the humans' souls. "Those are your souls, the-

"Culmination of our beings." Kris interrupted the flower, which caused it to become silent for a moment.

"Uh, yeah." Flowey said after muttering to himself for a moment. "Exactly. You're pretty smart for a human, kiddo."

The flower continued, "But anyways, your souls will start off weak, but you can make them stronger by gaining LV. What's LV stand for, you say?"

"Why, LOVE, of course! And down here, LOVE is shared through little white..." Flowey took a moment to summon some magic seeds. "FRIENDLINESS PELLETS!"

If the flower hadn't realized it, Kris knew exactly what those seeds were not. They had been through many battles to know that the seeds summoned by Flowey were in fact magic bullets. Which meant that Flowey was meaning to trick them.

But why though?

"You want some LOVE, don't ya?" Flowey spoke once more, keeping up with whatever facade he had going. "Grab as many Friendliness Pellets as you can!" The _pellets_ began to move towards Kris.

And Kris was having none of it. They immediately sidestepped from the attack Flowey sent at them, making sure that the kid on their back wouldn't get hit by a stray bullet.

Flowey gave Kris a face of disdain. "Hey buddy, ya missed. How about we try that again, alright?" Flowey then summoned several more pellets and sent then barreling towards the two humans. "Try to catch 'em this time!"

And once again, Kris dodges the bullet seeds. They weren't going to allow themselves to be taken advantage of that easily by a flower. And looking at the flower, it appeared that it was causing him to get a bit perturbed at the dodging.

"Hey buddy, are ya braindead from that fall?" Flowey said, a tone of anger flowing along. He summoned some more seeds. "Run. Into. The. Bullets-Friendliness Pellets."

Yeah, when a talking flower quickly fix his wording to make you not think twice about his intentions, it causes problems. And so, Kris decides to teach this flower a little lesson...

In Deflecting.

Calling upon the magic they had bestowed within their body (Caused by a diet of magic substances and a close proximity to magic as well), Kris crossed their left arm over to their right side. And when the seeds got close, they instantly summoned their sword and slashed those pellets in half, causing them to dissipate from the sudden cut of their magic proportions.

If one were to look at Flowey while Kris was slicing his (You know, the flower's) malicious intentions of an attack, you could see his face go from a gleeful, villainous smile to that of surprise and confusion. It's even funnier if you were to slow it down so that you could watch the facial muscles contort at the sudden realization that one has f*cked up and was now in a sh*tload of trouble.

"How in the Hell did ya do that?!" Flowey asked angrily at Kris, who now pointed their sword at the plant. "There is no way you could have learn to do that!"

Kris stares at Flowey, anger swelling up within them. The first monster they meet, and it attempts to attack them and the kid.

What happened to cause all of this?

Flowey then sighs. "Well then. No matter." He says before allowing a malicious grin overcome his face. "I'll just have to overwhelm ya. Because in this world..."

Flowey summons a ring of bullet seeds around the humans. "IT'S KILL. OR BE KILLED!" Flowey starts laughing like a madman. Or monster, whatevs.

Kris looked around themselves. Even if they were to perform a spinslash (Like Link from Super Smash Bros.), they wouldn't be able to destroy all of the projectiles before it reached them.

And besides, they already used their turn to destroy the last wave. Which meant they would get hit no matter what.

What a fitting way to go. Kris and their friends get sucked into the void, allowing them to escape the destructive force that was the Angel's Heaven, only to be separated or God knows what. Then they get released from the void, encountered a kid who survives a drop of who knows how many feet it was, and the first living thing in the cavern the two encounter was now going to kill them.

Son of a b*tch, their life was absolute sh*t.

They barely even noticed that the projectiles were now extremely close to them.

Or that there was another monster in the same room as them.

The kid on Kris's back tugged on the cape, snapping them out of their inner thoughts to witness Flowey's attack suddenly disappear, which caused Flowey to resort back to their confused state. In fact, Flowey almost didn't see the fireball being thrown at them until it was a foot away.

Which led to them being set ablaze and scurrying back into the dirt when it finally connected. The humans looked towards the direction from where the fireball originated to see a shadowy outline of a tall, fur-coated creature. An outline Kris remembered very well.

"My goodness," An old, motherly voice spoke, catching Kris off-guard. If they were unsure of who the creature that saved them was before, they definitely knew who it was now that they were in front of...

Their adoptive mother, Toriel.

"What a terrible creature, harming such poor, innocent youths. I am quite surprised that you know how to defend yourself, child."

"I am Toriel," She continued, not taking in the fact that the eldest of the humans before her had started to swell up tears. However, she did notice the injuries of the smaller one. "My goodness, child! Are you alright?"

She walked over to the humans and knelt down. "Do you mind if I heal the young one on your back?" Toriel asked Kris, holding out her arms so that she could take the child that was on Kris's back. They nodded and knelt down so that the child could be picked up off their back.

Kris felt a wave of weight lifted off of them and watched as their mother heal the small child they had carried from the other room. But the tears were still coming.

They were tears of joy, to finally see their mother again. Alive and well.

But also tears of distress, because she didn't even recognize her own child.

What did the void do to them?

"There we go, my child." Toriel said as she finished healing the small one. She placed them on their feet and allowed them to attempt moving around. The child was instantly walking around, glad to finally regain their sense of balance after the fall.

Toriel looked back at Kris, in which they finally noticed the tears falling down thd human's face. "Child, is there something wrong?" Toriel asked Kris, only to receive their answer suddenly by Kris wrapping their arms tightly around her and releasing the tears they were holding back on.

Toriel didn't know what to say, it had been so long since a child cried onto her shoulder. All they could do now was to hold the teenager and allow them to let it out.

The kid was also watching this teenager cry, and they felt a bit sad for them, even if they didn't know the reason for their cries.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Upon which a promise is made and class about puzzles begins.

After Kris finished crying, Toriel led the two humans out into a great, ruined hall, with two staircase leading up to a platform at the end of the hall. A quite spacious room, to be in fact.

However, Kris wasn't taking in the grand sights of the room. At the end of the hall, next to the bottom of the staircases, was a pile of red leaves.

Which held above it a Save Star. Something only Kris could see, and thus interact with. Using these Save Stars, Kris could save at that specific moment in time and anytime they died or had to reload, it would take them back to the last Save Star they used as a save point.

Kris walked over to the Save Star and touched it, which caused a strange voice to silently speak.

_"The sha.... .f t.. ...ns looms abo.., ...ling you wi.. ..term...tion."_

Upon the voice disappearing, the Save Menu opened.

???? - LV 0  Ruins - Entrance

****              Return     

 _This is strange?_ Kris thought to themself. _The Save feature's missing. Now why would that happen?_ Kris was caught up in trying to figure out the mystery of the missing save feature that they didn't notice that the kid was standing next to them. It actually took the kid pulling on their shoulder cape to snap their attention off the Save Star. "Oh hey. What's up, kid?"

The kid pointed at the Save Star in front of them. "Oh this?" Kris asked the child. "This is a Save Star. You can use it to save your place, and anytime you die or need to reload, it will take you ba-" It was at this moment, Kris realized, that the child could see the Save Star as well, which meant one thing.

They weren't the only one who were seeing stars now.

"-ck to the last Save Star you interacted with." Kris finished their sentence before quietly asking, "Kid, yo-you can see them too?"

The kid looked back and forth between the Save Star and Kris before nodding yes.

"Well, try interacting with it then. Perhaps it might work for you instead." Kris asked the kid politely. The kid placed their hand on the Save Star, causing the voice to reappear again, although more clearer than before.

_"The shadow of the ruins looms above, filling you with determination."_

???? - LV 0   Ruins - Entrance

*Save              Return    

"Well, would you look at that. It apparently works for you!" Kris spoke with relief. They look at the kid, who was a bit hesitant in pressing anything else. "Hey, don't worry, saving isn't painful."

The kid was still hesitant, making Kris sigh. "Look, I'll make you a promise." Kris spoke to the kid. "I'll protect you for however long we're down here for. That way, if you do have to reload due to death, you can blame me for not doing my job."

"Hell," Kris continued. "I'll even pinky swear. You know I can't break an almighty Pinky Swear, right?" This got a soft chuckle out of the kid before holding out their pinky. Kris held their pinky finger out and wrapped it as best as they could (Due to the fact that they were wearing gauntlets) around the kid's very own. Once they had swore the promise, the kid pressed "Save", only to get a confused look on their face. Kris looked at the save menu to try and figure out why they were now confused.

Chara - LV 1   Ruins - Entrance

*Save               Return  

"Is there something wrong?" Kris spoke before stopping at the name that had appeared on the file. How in the Hell does one pronounce "Chara?" Was it like "Care-ra?" "Car-ra?" "Char-ra?"

"...that's not my name." The kid spoke for the first time since they've met. And what they said had surprised Kris. They remembered this occurring to them too, caused by the entity using their body as a Vessel of some sorts. "Why is that the name of the save?"

Whoever this Chara was, Kris hoped that they wouldn't mind at all if they used their save file. But it seemed a bit strange that the kid's name was not the same as the name used for the save file. It did, however, remind them of the day they were under the control of that entity.

"CHILDREN," Toriel cries from the next room above. "ARE YOU COMING?" Her voice resonated with worry due to how long they were taking, standing in front of the Save Star.

Kris and the kid ran up the flight of stairs and into the next room to find a strange setup. Six tiles laid to the right of the room, with two of them marked by a path going through the middle. Somewhat of a puzzle.

"Ah, there you are, my children." Toriel said when the duo entered the room. "Allow me to educate you in the operations of the RUINS." Toriel then walked over to the floor contraption and proceeded to solve it, making sure not to step on the tiles that laid on the path before flipping the switch.

The door that stood closed besides the lever opened, signing that the puzzle was solved correctly. Toriel then spoke again, "The RUINS are full of puzzles. Ancient fusions between diversions and doorkeys. One must solve these puzzles in order to move on from one room to the next. They are a common sight down here, so please adjust yourselves to their sight."

Toriel proceeded forward into the next room, leaving Kris and "Chara(?)" to themselves once again. Kris looked around the room, attempting to find anything else in the room they didn't notice on their first lookover.

The teenager noticed that on the left of the door was a plaque, and they made their way to it to read what was written...

...except they didn't partially recognize what it said...

In fact, they only recognized some of the runes as that of Ancient Monster Runes

.... ..e .e.r.ess m.. .r..eed. .r..e ..es. ....is. ..es. .... ... ...k ..e midd.e r..d.

Yeah. They only learn a few of these ancient runes, mainly the ones that represented the letters that their name consisted of. They could guess that the unknown rune in the "midd.e" represented the letter "L", but other than that, they weren't good at cryptograms.

"Only the fearless may proceed." the small voice of the kid spoke, surprising Kris. "Brave ones, foolish ones. Both not walk the middle road."

Kris was surprised by the kid once again. _First they could use saves and now they could read ancient monster runes?_ Kris thought silently to themself. _What else does this kid have in their chest of secrets?_

Well, if that was what the plaque said, it would make sense in hindsight why their mother avoided the pressure plates on the middle path when she demonstrated the puzzle.

Alright kid," Kris spoke up to grab the younger one's attention. "We should head on, Toriel is waiting for us." They said as the duo made their way into the next room.

Which held several waterways, an untouched bridge, Toriel standing in front of another bridge that had spikes coming out of it through some holes, even more spikes blocking the pathway out of the room, and several levers.

As well as a broken sign next to the worn path and a plaque on the wall behind it.

"Children." Toriel spoke aloud. "In order to make progress here, you will need to trigger several switches. Worry not, however, for I have labeled the ones you must activate. Please take your time."

The duo nodded in agreement, and Kris headed over to the plaque, followed by the kid. "What does this one say?" Kris asked the kid.

The kid looked at it for a moment before heading back to the path, confusing the teenager. "What did it say?"

The kid gestured for Kris to make their way to them. Kris tilted their head in even more confusion. _What did that sign say to make the kid walk away?_ They thought as they headed to the small child.

Upon reaching them, the kid gestured for them to bring their ear close, as though they wanted to tell them a secret. Kris looked at the kid in discontent before sighing and did what they were asked to do.

The kid whispered to them, "Stay on the path." _So they did all that just to be told to stay on the path? Because if that was what the sign said, then there was a bit of irony as no path led to the damn sucker._ Kris thought as the child giggled.

Kris decided they would play it cool and continue towards completing the puzzles, just so they could get out of this room and hopefully closer to getting out of this Underground.

Toriel wasn't lying when she said she marked the correct ones. Surrounding the switch were painted several yellow arrows pointing towards the switch. As though Toriel was trying to make it as easy as possible, like though she was trying to teach young children about cause and effect.

Kris pulled the switch, and just as it was implied what it was supposed to do, the spikes retracted into the bridge, creating a clear pathway to the next area.

Kris watched as Toriel proceeded towards the next set of spikes, as well as allowing their young companion to catch up to them. They then proceeded to the next portion of the room, which had two switches instead of one, although the switch closest to the water had the arrows painted towards it. _But why was this the correct switch?_

Kris pondered on this thought when they noticed that the worn path extended to the marked switch as well. And remembering that the kid did tell them to "stay on the path", it clicked in their head that this was indeed the correct switch. So they flipped it, causing the spikes behind Toriel to retract.

"Splendid!" Toriel exclaimed as the spikes retracted. "I am proud of you, children. Let us move to the next room, shall we?" Toriel then disappeared into the next room as the two humans watched.

Kris chuckled when they felt Toriel wouldn't be able to hear them. "My god, she acts like either an old woman or a teacher! Hell, even both!" They chuckled some more before glancing at an angry kid, displeased with their worded treatment of Toriel. They silenced their chuckling spirit, realizing that perhaps it wasn't a good idea to make fun of their mother.

Even if their mother didn't recognize them.

The kid walked forward, disappearing into the next room. Kris smacked themself in anger as soon as they were out of sight. "Idiot, f*cking idiot!" They shouted at themself. They knew that it wasn't kind to make fun of people behind their backs, and yet they did it. They were a hypocrite, a huge hypocrite. Back when they were on the surface with their friends, Monster Teen made fun of their new friend Susie, and they got angry at them. But here they were, doing the same thing MT did a week ago in their memories.

Regaining their composure, they ran to catch up to the kid, only to suddenly lose that composure they built up upon entering the room.

For standing in front of their now confused young companion, was a dummy dressed in an outfit Kris recognized more than anything else.

A mint green pointed hat, cloak, and glasses, and a dark pink scarf adorned the dummy.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Upon which Kris finds a possible lead, Toriel makes a bad pun, and the duo encountered their first battle.

Kris fell to their knees, surprised by the sight in front of them. They recognized that attire from their own universe, belonging to their close friend Ralsei. If their attire was adorned on this dummy, did it mean that they, possibly, could be alive?

"Oh, you must be noticing the clothes on this training dummy." Toriel spoke when she noticed Kris's gaze at the dummy. "I have been taking care of another monster for a while, and they decided to spruce this dummy up."

"But regarding that, as humans living in the UNDERGROUND, monsters may attack you." This caused Kris to perk up. _What did they mean, "Monsters may attack us?"_ Kris thought. While besides that flower that attempted to kill them, Monsters and Humans never attacked one another, not since the treaty between the two sides prevented an all-out war. So what happened to change all that?

Toriel continued. "You will need to be prepared for this situation. However, worry not! The process is simple. When you encounter a monster, you will enter a FIGHT. While you are in a FIGHT, strike up a friendly conversation. Stall for time. I will come to resolve the conflict." Toriel then gestures to the adorned dummy. "Practice talking to the dummy."

While the kid went to practice with the dummy, Kris decided to pry for some information on Toriel's ward, which they hoped was their dear friend Ralsei.

"Oh, do you need ideas for conversation topics, child?" Toriel asked Kris. Kris was about to decline the offer when Toriel interjected, "Well, I often start off a simple 'How do you do...' You could ask them about their favorite books..."

Kris again tried to decline, but Toriel continued, "Jokes can be useful for 'breaking the ice.' Listen to this one... What did the skeleton tile his roof with?"

Kris became worried, and even the kid stopped what they were doing to listen in on this joke.

Toriel snorted as she held in her laughter. "...SHIN-gles!"

And that did it. Kris felt like they died on the inside from just how bad the joke their mother told was. It even reminded them of that shopkeeper who took an interest in her as well.

Terrible, offensive jokes being told by a short skeleton who looked like they were lazy in just about everything.

Speaking of sans, Kris realized they didn't notice him or his younger brother Papyrus when everyone went into the bunker. As though they disappeared from the face of the Earth.

Other than that, they were not amused by the joke. And neither was the kid as well, guessing from the cough they let out to show that it didn't hit the mark.

Toriel stayed silent, seeing that neither of them enjoyed her joke. "Well," She spoke. "I thought it was amusing."

"It wasn't." Kris remarked as they walked away, now discouraged from asking about Toriel's ward. The kid also resumed to what they were doing earlier, which was talking to the Training Dummy.

Kris watched as the kid finished practicing with the Dummy. "Ah, very good! You are very good my child." Toriel spoke with glee. She looks over to Kris. "Now, you tr-

Kris interrupted her. "No thank you. I already know how it works. There's **FIGHT** , **ACT** , **ITEM** , **MERCY** , and **BLOCK** , if one has a shield or knows how to do it." Kris then began to explain the properties of each option as best they could to Toriel. "When you choose to **FIGHT** , you choose who you will attack and then throw all your might, or magic if one has it, at whoever you're attacking. If you're **FIGHT** ing to kill, you put everything into the attack, but if you're **FIGHT** ing, but not to kill, you hold back quite a bit."

Kris continued, explaining the **ACT** next. "The **ACT** option is for **ACT** ing. When you **ACT** , you choose to perform actions that are either nice or mean to the recipient. If you are kind enough, the enemy may not want to fight anymore." They then took a deep breath, ready to explain **ITEM**. "The **ITEM** allows one to access the items they've collected and use it in the battle. All items have a use, some heal your HP, and some changes your current Armor or Weapon."

Kris then expained the **MERCY** option. "If one is kind enough, or if the opponent is wounded enough, one can use **MERCY** and spare them. They can also use the **MERCY** option to flee a battle."

And finally, the **BLOCK**. "The **BLOCK** is a rare option, mostly due to the requirements behind it. In order to use it, one must have something that can block or dampen incoming attack damage or they can block with parts of their body if it's strong enough. **BLOCK** ing decreases the amount of damage an attack deals while increasing 'Tension Power', which can be spent on special abilities and moves."

They looked at Toriel, who wore the face of surprise, and the kid, whose mouth was now agape. This pleased Kris a bit, knowing that at the very least, Ralsei was a more excellent teacher than Toriel was at the moment.

"I had a very good teacher, miss." Kris said.

Toriel stood there, still wide-eyed from the detailed explanation the tall human gave. She never expected humans to still know some things about the Fighting menu, let alone a majority of it.

And the **BLOCK** option, it had been a long time since that move had been used in the Underground, it had been all but forgotten. Toriel shook herself out of her trance. Whoever it was that taught the tall human their knowledge, she hoped that she would be able to meet them.

"Alright then, children. Let us proceed to the next room." Toriel said as she went into the next room, followed by the two humans.

The next room wasn't large. All that was there was a strange pattern on the floor and a pathway on the right. Toriel spoke up once again. "There is another puzzle in this room... I wonder if you can solve it?"

_Oh, you had to be kidding me!_ Kris thought when they heard that. They had no idea where the puzzle would be. They wandered around the room, looking for some sort of puzzle. They weren't paying attention to the fact that Toriel and their young companion left through the right pathway until they noticed the kid coming back from that path. "Oh jeeze, I didn't realize you were gone!"

The kid shrugged and looked around the room as well. "The plaque said that the western room would be the eastern room's blueprint," they said to Kris's surprise.

"What plaque!?" Kris whisper-screamed. They hadn't noticed a plaque anywhere in the room. They were answered by the kid pointing down the pathway they just returned from. Kris immediately felt a bit embarrassed from not checking the pathway for any puzzles. "Ok, so the puzzle is in the next room. What's here is the hint to that puzzle."

The duo looked around the room some more before they noticed the pattern on the ground. It looked out of place with its design, and looked like a pathway of some sort. They looked at one another, pointing at the pattern.

"It has to be this!" Kris said excitedly. "Why haven't I noticed this beforehand!" And with that, the duo ran into the pathway, past the plaque on the wall...

...and right into a Froggit, which entered the duo into a **FIGHT**.

_**Froggit attacks you!**_ A soft shout could be heard coming out of thin air. The two humans readied themselves, although with different reactions. The young human jumped backwards in surprise while the teenaged human stepped back, holding their left arm up as though they were holding a shield.

...except Kris's shield wouldn't form. Apparently, when they had combined their Light Form with their Dark Form, they learned that their weapon (And shield) magic was unstable and would require a catalyst to properly maintain it. And their Catalyst was their Kris Dagger.

Which they unfortunately lost when they and their friends were sucked into the black goop.

Which meant that Kris was defenseless, so for the time being until they obtained a catalyst, they would be without their **BLOCK** option for several battles.

Fortunately, it wasn't the only thing they were excellent at. Kris composed themselves.

> **ACT**

> **Froggit**

> **Compliment**

"You have lovely eyes." Kris said to the Froggit. They knew that Froggits had a hard time understanding what they said a majority of the time, but it was worth a shot at the moment.

_**Froggit didn't understand what you said, but was flattered anyway.** _The voice spoke once again, still coming out of thin air. Kris would have to ask the kid if they heard that voice as well once they were finally able to be alone.

It was now their companion's turn. They decided to follow up Kris's compliment with...

"I think I would need a map too, because I keep getting lost looking at your eyes!"

...a flirt. Oh dear god, why was the kid as flirty as Kris, one flirty person was enough, but two is just an overload!

_**Froggit was flattered even more. It's blushing a deep red!** _

It was at that moment Toriel came back to see what had kept the two humans away. The entire battle went silent as Toriel loomed over the Froggit, glaring with a look that said, _"If you dare f*cking attack one of  these two children, I will murder you right f*cking here!"_

The Froggit slowly moved away for the group, not wanting to risk its life for a hit.

Once the Froggit was gone, Toriel turned to the humans. "My apologies, children. I should have been paying more attention. I hope you were not frightened."

"Eh, we're fine," Kris said. "I bet those guys wouldn't hurt a fly." They then thought about what they had just said about that specific monster, given the fact that it was frog-based. "Wait, scratch that. They're frogs, they eat insects like flies."

The battle ends, and they resume to following Toriel to the edge of the short hallway. Now in front of them was a bridge covered with spikes. If what the plaque told them of the floor pattern in the previous room was true, then the spikes on the determined pathway would retract, creating a clear path.

"This is the puzzle, but..." Toriel was silent for a moment as she looked at the spiked bridge. She then reached her hand out to the young child to grasp. "Here, take my hand for a moment. Follow closely, other one."

Toriel lead the kid through the puzzle, with Kris following close behind. With each step she took, the spikes retracted into the ground, and as Kris went further along, the spikes behind them resetted back to its original position.

"Puzzles seem a little too dangerous for now." She said as they finally reached the end of the bridge. For all that pattern was worth, it didn't matter in the end as Toriel decided that it was best to lead them through the correct path.

_A bit like a tutori-_ Kris immediately stopped their train of thought when they thought of the word. They had just realized that their mother's very own name could be used in a terrible pun if it were to involve a mirror and/or the use of a guide, and they no longer wanted to finish the thought anymore.

They entered the next room, and Kris was surprised. A long path stood between their side and the exit. To them, it felt like it would only take a few seconds. Although to the kid... It would take longer than them to make it to the end.

"You two have done excellently thus far, my children." Toriel spoke to them once again. "However..."

Kris did not like the feeling of this, and looking at their companion showed that they too did not have a good feeling about this either. "I have a difficult request to ask of you." She said with a grim face. "I would like you two to walk to the end of the room by yourself. Forgive me for this."

With that, Toriel made a dash to the other end of the room, leaving the two humans alone by themselves.

From their perspective, however, they watched Toriel then proceed to hide behind a pillar. This caused the duo to stifle their laughter. For the kid, the possibility of how silly she was being.

For Kris, the fact that Toriel should at least know better than to hide right in front of them and still within view.

Well, this exercise would allow them to learn some things about their companion, as they appeared to be hiding something.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Kris learns their compainion's name, the duo get a new phone, and then Kris proceeds to make a mess.

The duo were now left alone in the hallway (Well, besides Toriel being in the distance behind a pillar, _like_ that was going to hide her). Knowing they would have to proceed further into the underground in order to leave, they began walking.

Albeit slowly. Kris had a few things to talk about with the kid. "So," Kris started the subtle interrogation. "If _Care-ra_ , _Car-ra_ , however the Hell you pronounce that name, isn't yours, then what is it?"

The kid was silent for a few seconds before sighing. It felt as though the kid was a bit reluctant to reveal it, but...

"Frisk." They spoke.

Kris was a bit intrigued. _Frisk_ was not a usual name for a child, in fact no reasonable parent would choose that as a birth name.

"That's the name I gave myself." _Frisk_ continued.

This, Kris could understand, as they too had done something similar to it, although it wasn't much of a change. Their first name was originally longer, but they decided at a young age to shorten it to just "Kris".

"Alright, we both have something in common." Kris spoke, gaining attention from Frisk. "We both have deadnames and we both chose our own names."

"What did you choose as your name?" Frisk asked.

"Kris. It's my original name just shorten down." Kris answered. "I was pretty happy to find out that it's also the name of a type of dagger. Had one too till I lost it."

"Another thing I should ask." Kris continued their questioning. "How the heck do you know how to read those Ancient Monster Runes? You're way too young to have learned about them."

"I don't know." Frisk replied quickly. "They look strange for a second, and then some glowing letters show up and tell me what they say. I don't know what's going on, but it appears to be helping."

 _That was true._ Kris thought. _Strange that Frisk is seeing glowing letters translate the runes, but if it was helping them out, then that was good._

The duo finally reached the pillar where Toriel was hiding behind, and as if on cue, she popped out.

"Greetings, my children." She said to them. "Do not worry, I did not leave you. I was merely behind this pillar the whole time. Thank you for trusting me. However, there was an important reason for this exercise."

Whatever it was, it had to be good. "...to test your independence."

To Kris, it felt a bit strange. If this was to test their independence, then that test was already passed since there was two of them. Plus, they were the older one, so the exercise was more of a waste of time as they could watch Frisk and make sure they didn't get in trouble or hurt.

Which basically was their job at that very moment.

"I must attend to some business, and you two will have to be alone for a while." Toriel said. "Please remain here. It is dangerous to explore all by yourselves."

"I know I can protect myself." Kris objected. "And I'm positive that I can protect them as well." They say as they gestured towards Frisk.

Toriel sighed, but then perks up. "I have an idea," she said as she rummages through some unseeable back pocket on her robe. She pulls out an old brick phone and hands it to Frisk. "I will give you a **CELL PHONE**. If you two need anything, just call. Be good, alright?"

"Alright." Frisk said as Toriel left to run some errands. For some reason, Kris wondered, they hadn't thought about their own cellphone. They could have brought it out and said they had one already, and that they already had their number.

Kris pulled out their Cell Phone and turned it on, only to receive a message.

**NO SERVICE AVAILABLE**

Great. Just great. The Void had to f*ck up their phone service as well. This day was not going their way whatsoever.

Kris turned their phone off and put it back in its slot, mumbling some curses as they did so. Frisk had noticed that Kris also had a phone, but from hearing the curses as they roughly placed it back where they got it, guessed that it wasn't working at the moment.

Which meant that they had the only phone that worked at the moment.

Frisk checked their new phone out. They have never seen a phone like this before. It had a round thing at the top that, when they pulled it, extended a few inches.

It also had buttons. Buttons were cool.

They checked the menu on the phone. Well, if you could call it a menu, as the only thing there was Contacts. No miscellaneous items like games or texts, so the only function it had was calling people. Checking the contacts revealed that only one number was entered in, Toriel's.

Pretty much your basic phone. Frisk looked around the hall. The two of them had been there for about a minute, and already they were bored. Wanting to see a change in scenery, Frisk tugged at Kris's cape and pointed to the exit where Toriel had left through.

Kris could definitely understand. Staying here waiting for Toriel to come back would kill them, so they bet she wouldn't mind if they went on a little journey through the ruins.

Besides, they had to find a way out of this Underground.

The duo exited the hallway, and almost immediately hear a ringing emanating from Frisk. Frisk checked to see if it was their new phone.

It was, and so they answered it, with Kris kneeling so that they could partake in the conversation as well if they needed to.

"Hello." Toriel's voice spoke on the receiving end. "This is TORIEL. You have not left the room, have you?" Frisk started to get nervous. Just after leaving the room, they're getting called out on by the Goat Lady. They didn't know what to do.

Luckily, Kris grabbed the phone and lied. "No ma'am. We're still here in the hall where you left us."

"Ok, just wanted to let you know there are a few puzzles ahead that I have yet to explain." Toriel said, having bought the lie. "It would be dangerous for you two to try and solve them by yourselves. Be good, alright."

She then hung up, leaving Kris alone with Frisk once again. Kris handed the phone back to Frisk. "Toriel told me there were a couple puzzles up ahead that would be dangerous for us to solve by ourselves." Kris repeated what Toriel told them to Frisk. "We're gonna go solve them."

"But didn't Tori-" Frisk attempted to object, only for them to be interrupted by the elder human.

"Oh c'mon! It can't be that bad. I had to solve several increasingly difficult puzzles made by this skeleton dude."

Now Frisk was really confused. This armored teen had to solve puzzles made by a skeleton? What were they on about?

"Don't ask, I'm not sure how to explain with what's going on right now." Kris said. "It feels conflicting somehow. Nothing seems right to me at the moment."

_**Ribbit.** _

The human duo looked over to the source of the sound. A Froggit sat there looking up at them. In fact, it was the same Froggit they had encountered in the spiked bridge room.

 _ **Ribbit, ribbit.**_ To a normal person, it wouldn't mean anything at all. But to Kris, they had no trouble understanding what it was saying, so they squatted close.

_**(Excuse me, humans.)** _

_**Ribbit, rib-ribbit.** _

_**(I have some advice about battling monsters.)** _

_**Rib-ribbit, ribbit, ribbit...** _

_**(If you ACT a certain way or FIGHT until you almost defeat them...)** _

_**Ribbit, ribbit, rib-ribbit.** _

_**(They may not want to battle you anymore.)** _

_**Rib-ribbit, rib-ribbit...** _

_**(If a monster does not want to fight you, please...)** _

_**Rib-ribbit, ribbit.** _

_**(Use some MERCY, humans.)** _

Pretty much, the Froggit told the duo the same thing Kris had said back in the Training Dummy room.

_**Ribbit.** _

It had to say one last ribbit, didn't it.

Kris straighten themselves back up and was about to relay that the Froggit talked about what they had already said back in the Training Dummy room, when they stopped.

Frisk didn't look like they had any difficulty understanding the Froggit whatsoever, which meant that whatever was helping them translate the ancient runes must also be translating what the Froggit was saying.

_What was this thing helping them out?_

The duo decided to stop by the nearby Save Star and save their progress, since they were now by themselves and Toriel didn't know they had decided to wander off on their own after she left. For now, they had two options to choose from that they could head to.

The door to the left of them, or the door on the right.

Since the door on the right was the furthest away, they decided to see what waited behind door number 1.

Which turned out to be a dead end room with a bowl on a pedestal in the direct middle of it, as well as a little note stand.

That, however, was not what Kris noticed.

"OH HELL YEAH!" Kris shouted with glee as they ran to the bowl. "THERE'S CANDY IN HERE!" Frisk walked up to the bowl as Kris started unwrapping the pieces of candy one by one and eating them.

"Uh, Kris?" Frisk spoke up, grabbing the attention of the teen long enough to stop gobbling all of the pieces they grabbed.

"Wha- wait, what the hell?" Kris said, surprised by the fact that the candies that had entered their mouth had already disappeared. "Why am I not able to suck on these? What are these, Dark World sweets?"

Frisk shrugged, having no explanation on why Kris couldn't have a physical feel of the sweets they had just consumed. As well as having no goddamn clue as to what 'Dark World sweets' were.

But whatever those were, these candies were not that.

"The sign here say, 'Monster Candy. Please take only one.'" Frisk said. To their displeasure, Kris didn't care. "I don't have that strong of a comprehension of Ancient Monster Runes, I wouldn't know what it would have said." Kris said, getting over their confusion of the sweets as they grabbed a few more.

This caused Frisk to facepalm in response. They looked at Kris through the gaps of their fingers. "The sign is in English..." They mumbled.

Well, this was an embarrassment on Kris's part. They attempted to sneak one last piece of candy, but in doing so made the bowl finally tip over and spilled the remaining monster candies out onto the floor.

Kris looked at the mess they had just caused before looking back at Frisk. Showing a face that said, "Whoops, I f*cked up," they held out 4 pieces of the sweets they had taken from the bowl, about half of what they managed to grab before the result ended in catastrophe.

Frisk looked at them with disgust before swiping Kris's offer out of their hand. They then walked towards the room's exit, stopping at the frame to look back at Kris.

"You are the scum of the Earth." Frisk said, their voice filled with ill intent, before finally exiting the room.

For a moment, Kris could have sworn they saw a glint of red coming from behind Frisk's closed eyelids as they said that to them.


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Kris and Frisk skip a puzzle completely, solve one on a second attempt, and gets into an argument with a rock...

Kris caught up to Frisk in the next room, which looked a bit strange. While it looked like a simple straight line, halfway across the hall were cracked tiles.

It looked like a simple jump for Kris, but they weren't sure that Frisk would be able to perform one just like them due to their short stature.

Although...

"On my back." Kris commanded as they readied themselves for a sprint. "What are you gonna do, run across?" Frisk exclaimed as they climbed back onto Kris.

"Nope." Kris said. "I'm doing _this!_ "

Kris lunged into a running sprint, freaking Frisk out more and more as they got closer to the cracked tiles.

Just before their next step would be upon the cracks, Kris leapt, clearing the cracked flooring and landed on their hands and feet.

Frisk was a bit frightened by the close call, but since they were now on the other side, they could slip off Kris's back.

"I don't want to do that again." Frisk said as they brought their nerves back down. Which took a few seconds as Kris had leapt way too close to the edge.

The duo then entered the next room with a rock, a pressure plate, and a row of spikes splitting the room in half, blocking the exit out of the room.

Unluckily, however, Frisk's phone went off once again. And they both knew it could only be Toriel.

"Hello." Frisk answered.

"Ah! Children, I have an inquiry to ask of you two." Toriel's voice resonated from the phone once again. "For no particular reason, which do you prefer? Butterscotch or cinnamon?"

Frisk didn't understand why Toriel would ask a question like that. Luckily for them however, Kris knew exactly what Toriel was asking about.

"Oh my God, she's asking about pie flavors!" Kris exclaimed, making Frisk even more confused about how the preference of butterscotch or cinnamon would change a pie's flavor.

"Ok, tell me," Kris held Frisk's shoulders. "Do you like sweetness or something with a touch of spice?" Frisk was trying to grasp what Kris was getting at with this question. Was this question suppose to explain Toriel's question?

They thought for a moment. "Sweet?" They said, hoping Kris would explain what was this all about.

Kris grabbed the phone. "We'll have have Butterscotch, miss Toriel."

"Alright, I'll let my ward know to use more butterscotch in the recipe." And with that, Toriel hung up again.

Frisk swiped their phone out of Kris's hand. "Do you mind explaining what all this 'Butterscotch/Cinnamon flavoring' is all about?" Frisk asked them.

Kris chuckled as they tapped their fingers together. "Ah, dear friend. Allow me to tell you about the powers of these two ingredients in this one pie."

Kris began explaining about the Butterscotch/Cinnamon ratio in a Butterscotch-Cinnamon Pie. By adding more Butterscotch to the pie, the pie becomes sweeter, and by adding more Cinnamon to the pie, it gains a more spiced taste.

With the flavors explained to them, Frisk looked around the room. They noticed that besides the usual basic puzzle requirements, there was also a plaque to the left of it. They walked over to it and checked it out.

Like what they had told Kris, the _Ancient Monster Runes_ made no sense until a second later when sure enough, the glowing letters began to appear for them.

_**Three out of four grey rocks recommend you push them.** _

Frisk looked behind them. There was only one grey rock in the room, not four. Was the sign wrong?

They also noticed that Kris had decided to roll the rock over to the plate with their foot in quite the bored manner.

Upon the rock's placement onto the pressure plate, the spikes dropped down, allowing access to the next room.

The duo proceeded forward, stopping to answer the phone once again to confirm that none of them had any allergies to what was in the pie. They entered a rather large room with a strange opening next to them. It would be impossible to attempt fitting in there from where they were at the moment.

However, that wasn't what worried them.

What worried them was the massive amounts of cracked floor tiles that stood between them and the exit around the corner.

"Well, when Toriel said that there were a couple dangerous puzzles up ahead," Frisk remarked as they gestured towards the cracked grounds. "She meant puzzles like _this!_ "

Kris bit down on their lips as they checked over the tiles. There was no apparent hints that told them if there was even safe passage through this room, and they didn't know what lied underneath the cracked tiles if they were to break underneath them.

"Frisk," Kris turned to their young companion. "If I step on a tile and I fall and die, can you reload your save so I can try again."

Frisk looked at Kris, their red eyes peering from underneath their eyelids.

"I am not going through that jump again!" They screamed at the teen. Kris stepped back, holding their hands up in front of them. _Perhaps they were a bit cocky with jumping over some cracks without checking if there was anything considered dangerous underneath them._ Kris thought.

Kris took a deep breath as they walked up to the edge of the cracked flooring. "Wish me luck." They asked Frisk as they hovered their foot over the first tile.

Which, upon their foot applying pressure to it, cracked underneath their weight, sending Kris downwards into the unknown. They attempted to recover by spreading their arms outwards, only for the flooring underneath their arms to crack as well, giving them nothing to grab onto as they fell a few feet onto a pile of floor rubble and leaves.

"Oh my god," they could hear Frisk shriek from above. "Are you alright?"

"Yeah." Kris mumbled loudly. "Just a bit winded. I'm ok. Leaves broke my fall."

That had to be the luckiest fall for them. If they were next to the wall on their left, they would have hit the ground.

Strangely, Kris noticed as they picked theirself up that there was a makeshift pathway leading to nowhere out of the uncovered ground. Perhaps, if they were to apply the logic of "Stay on the path" to this, then perhaps the cracked tiles directly above said pathway would not break under their weight.

Well, it was worth a try. They memorized the pathway, even walking on the path a couple times to help in said memorization, before looking for a way out. Which just so happened to be against the wall they was supposedly underneath where they had just entered the room.

Frisk was looming down the large hole their friend had just made, watching as they disappeared and reappeared multiple times while they were down there. They had no clue what Kris was doing down there. Kris had been gone for a while now, and they were starting to get a little-

**THUMP!**

Frisk turned towards the source of the noise, only to find Kris as they laid on their face. Apparently, they had fallen out of the strange slot that was high up in the wall.

Kris picked themselves up once again brushing off a few dust particles they had managed to pick up. "I think I might have the answer." They said, a smirk growing on their face.

"Are you alright though?" Frisk questions Kris as they watched them go up against the wall. "That way you fell didn't look so good."

"Nah, I'm positive." Kris replied as they started to scoot onto the cracked tiles.

"Hey, hey, hey!" Frisk started to stammer as they observed the older teen trying once again on the tiles, especially after that awkward tumble they just had a few moments ago. "Are you sure you want to do that again?"

Kris managed to make it to the end of the wall before cocking their head towards the kid. "Well, judging by how far I managed to get right to right now, I believe that I figured out the answer to this particular puzzle."

Kris then crossed the gap between where they were to the wall on the other side before turning back to Frisk. "Be sure to step where I have stepped, kid. Much safer that way..."

Judging by the fact that Kris was three times heavier than them, and that the tiles hadn't cracked under their weight like the first time, Frisk decided to follow in Kris's footsteps. They placed their left hand on the wall Kris had their back to before they moved to the other wall and made their way forward.

Surprisingly, the floor did not crumble under the pressure of their own footing, despite looking as though glimpsing at it would make it crack open. Even if they were a bit lightfooted, it shouldn't hold up even after Kris had been on it.

They reached the end of the wall and tiptoed to Kris from there, not want to push their luck any further. Upon reaching them, Kris then took two steps towards the wall where the exit resided before turning 90 degrees counterclockwise and walked toward the opposite wall.

Frisk followed carefully behind Kris, their trust in them knowing the way growing.

Kris stopped in front of a pile of leaves, which laid beneath a plaque on the wall. "Hey Frisk." They said, turning back to their young companion. "Do you mind reading this sign?"

Frisk tried to shuffle around them, but freaked out when Kris took a step away from the wall. "Hey, hey, hey!" Kris attempted to soothe the kid's nerves. "This part of the pathway is at least two tiles wide. I'm not going to fall down like last time."

Once Frisk calmed down, they stepped onto the leaf pile and looked at the sign. Which led to a confused look appearing on their face.

"What is it, Frisk?" Kris asked them. "Something wrong?"

Frisk turned towards the teen. "It says, _'Didn't you read the sign downstairs?'_ What does it mean by that?"

For that question, Kris had no other choice but to shrug, since they couldn't read the sign downstairs. All they were doing was guessing that the uncovered pathway underneath them was the solution to this room's puzzle.

The duo continued onwards, crossing directly to the other side across from the plaque before walking alongside it to the exit. Kris sweared they didn't want to go through that bull again, as a part of the body ached from the tumble.

They walked into the next room, only to find a familiar puzzle setup, except more of it. Instead of one rock and a pressure plate, there were three rocks and three plates.

To Kris, the only logical answer to this puzzle had to be that all the plates had to be activated for the spikes to deactivate. Which meant pushing all the rocks onto them.

Sounds easy enough.

Although another phone call came in. This was starting to annoy Kris. _How many times would their mother call them?!_

Frisk answered the phone, with Kris kneeling next to them. "Hi, miss. How are you?"

"I am fine, children." Toriel's voice resonated from the phone. "My ward accidentally made a mistake and added equal amounts of ground cinnamon and butterscotch into the pie filling. I hope this does not bother you."

"Eh, I don't mind it. Pie's still pie to me." Kris paused for a moment. "Unless it's not a dessert pie..."

Frisk looked at them for a few seconds, one of the eyebrows raised, before turning away. You could see them nodding after a moment of thinking it out.

"Welp, talk to you later, ma'am." Kris said before tapping the end call button on the phone. "Alright, now let's get over with this puzzle and move on."

Frisk nodded once again as they placed their phone back into their pocket. They then looked at what laid in front of them again, feeling like there was something off with one of the rocks.

Kris had managed to push the first two rocks onto their plates without any result, and was now making their way towards the third and final rock in the room. As they were doing so, Frisk remembered what they read two rooms ago.

_Three out of four gray rocks recommend you push them._

And that room contained a lone gray rock. Kris had just pushed two more without a hitch. Which only meant-

"HEY!" The last gray rock shouted as Kris laid their gloved hands on it, causing them to trip backwards screaming. "JUST WHAT DO YAH THINK YER DOIN', LAYUN' YOUR GRUBBY HANDS ON MEH!?!"

Kris was breathing heavily, their left hand over their chest. They weren't expecting a rock to suddenly speak up out of nowhere, especially when all the others didn't...

Frisk was the first one to speak. "Mister Rock, we kinda need to get past those spikes behind you. Do you mind if you scooted towards the button?"

"OH, YA WANT PAST THEM SPIKES, EH?" The rock spoke, still loud in tone. "ENYTHIN' FOR YOU, KIDDOS." With that, the rock moved towards the pressure plate...

Only to stop after a foot of moving.

"Ay, little bit further," Kris harshly spoke, an aura of annoyance emitting from their body.

"JEEZE, YO'R A BIT RUDE!" The rock snapped back. "BUT FINE! I SCOOT A BIT MOR' FOR YAH!" The rock then scooted upwards, nowhere near the plate the duo needed pressed.

Kris lifted their hands up to their head in anger, becoming agitated as they scrunched their hair. "NOT THAT WAY, YOU IDIOT!"

Kris screamed out. "WE NEED YOU ON _THAT PLATE!!!_ " They pointed at the only pressure plate left open. "HOW ARE YOU THIS MUCH TROUBLE TO WORK WITH, HOLY F*CK!?!"

"AY, AY, AY! DON'T YOU CUSS AT ME!" The rock shouted back at Kris. Frisk felt that now might be a good time to intervene before things got even worse. Like their guardian throwing the rock into the water...

"Guys, shut up!" Frisk shouted, getting the human and the rock to stop bickering for a moment. "Mr. Rock, do you mind if you could move onto the pressure plate, please?"

"OH, IS _THAT_ WHERE YOU WANT ME?" The rock said, still agitated with Kris. "A'RIGHT, FINE!"

The rock then finally moved back downwards before scooting towards the pressure plate, where it settled.

"Thank you, sir." Frisk said as the spikes fell. "We really appreciate it." The duo then walked towards the bridge, only for the spikes to pop back out once again. Kris slowly turned their head towards the rock, seeing that it had just moved off of the plate. They then walked over to the rock.

"Move. The F*ck. Back Onto. The Plate." Kris spoke, anger rising inside of them. "And DON'T F*CKING MOVE OFF OF IT AT ALL, GOD DAMMIT!!!"

"JEEZE, YO'R REAL-" The rock spoke, only to be interrupted by Kris's shout.

"I DON'T GIVE A FLYING F*CK, NONE OF US HAVE GOT ALL F*CKING DAY!" Kris screamed at the top of their lungs. "YOU'RE JUST AS GOD DAMN ANNOYING AS THAT F*CKING NERD!!!" The rock stayed silent. Kris continued, "DO I NEED TO F*CKING ASK YOU AGAIN, OR DO I NEED TO CRUSH YOU UP INTO FINE F*CKING PEBBLES?!?"

"N-no, you d-don't gotta." The rock squeak in fear. It then scooted back onto the plate, this time not moving as Kris made their way across the bridge.

Frisk looked back at the rock. "I'm so sorry about this." They apologized before running to catch up to Kris in the next room, which housed a coffee table with a wedge of cheese sitting on it, a nearby hole at the base of the wall (Probably a mousehole), and a Save Star.

"Kris." Frisk spoke up, allowing their older friend to turn around. "That wasn't very kind of you to say you would hurt that rock. In fact, that was very rude." Kris looked at Frisk, not revealing much emotions through their face.

However, the shifting of their body posture said otherwise. "Ok, what's wrong?" Frisk asked Kris. A moment of silence filled the room before Kris scoffed an answer. "It's nothing, kid. I'm just really annoyed with that damn rock, that damn thing being so goddamn stupid to work with!" Kris then walked over to the wall with the mousehole and placed their fist on it. "It's like that rock has the IQ of a bag of-"

Kris stopped themselves, and looked like they were thinking about what they were about to say. A few seconds later, they went into a giggling fit, frightening Frisk.

"Oh my god," Kris spoke before breaking back into giggling. "He is literally as dumb as himself, a rock! Holy Sh*t!"

"Kris." Frisk spoke up. "You're scaring me." Kris looked at their companion, snorting at their observation.

"Yeah." Kris spoke, calming themselves down. "I've heard that quite a lot. Became a habit of mine since my brother was the star child of the town." Kris then mumble something under their breath, although it was too soft to be heard by Frisk's ears.

Kris spoke up again. "Let's just continue, ain't going anywhere if we're just stand here." They walked a few feet forward before stopping. "Also, Save Star. Better use it cause I do not want to deal with that rock again."

Frisk walked over to the yellow star that stood next to the table and activated it.

_"Knowing the mouse might one day leave its hole and get the cheese..." "Fills you with DETERMINATION."_

Frisk then saved their progress and walked into the next room, where they found Kris standing there.

"Hey, what's wrong?" Frisk asked, worried about why they were standing there. Kris looked back at Frisk and pointed at a downwards angle in front of them.

Frisk followed the invisible line coming from their finger towards where it was resting, to find that in front of them, lying on its back...

...was a ghost with headphones.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the 2 month long wait.  
> Also, longest Chapter I have ever written in my life, holy crap.
> 
> Edit: Need a bit of help. I don't remember how much inventory space (Total Space amount of Weapon/Armor Inventory, Consumable Item Inventory, and Key Items Inventory) in the Dark World Kris has, and the Internet Search for the answer is completely bullcrap, doesn't even help in any single way...
> 
> So can I get an answer to my predicament? I don't want to load up Deltarune again (As I made a promise to In-Game Kris not to return until the game gets more chapters added on).


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which the duo go up against a ghost, eat some donuts, and find something cute...

_**Thanks to Starpuppy10 over on Archiveofourown.org for providing me with the answer of Kris's normal Dark World Inventory Space (12). I needed to know so that I could add it with both their Light World Inventory Space and Frisk's Inventory Space.** _

The duo looked down at the ghost lying directly in the middle of the path, offering no way around them but through. While Frisk looked at the ghost in confusion, Kris looked at them with the feeling of knowing them. However, they didn't know if this was the same ghost they knew as Undyne's 'Not Feeling Up To It' deputy.

Kris stepped over to the ghost and knelt down. They could hear a sound emitting from the ghost.

"z. z. z. z. z. z. z. z. z. z."

 _You've got to be kidding me!_ Kris thought as the ghost kept saying 'Z' over and over again.

"z. z. z. z. z. (are they gone yet?) z. z. z. z. z. z. z." The ghost mumbled. Even though they tried to be silent, Kris heard exactly what the ghost said, wondering if they had left.

Kris stood back up. "Alright, enough fooling around." They spoke to the ghost, hoping that they would realize they weren't fooling anybody. "Get up so we can move on with our lives."

The ghost stayed still, continuing to emit Zs. "YO!" Kris snapped. "You ain't fooling anybody!" When the ghost still didn't move, Kris had no choice, but to softly kick their foot into the incorporeal ghost.

This was enough to set the ghost off into a battle.

 ** _Here comes Napstablook._** The soft voice from before echoed. Kris's eyes brighten up. This was the deputy from their town, always feeling down in the dumps! Why were they here? They thought as the duo faced off against the ghost. As always, Kris went first.

**> ACT**

**> Napstablook**

**> Check**

**Napstablook**

**AT 10**

**DF 10**

_**This monster doesn't seem to have a sense of humor...** _

_Well._ Kris thought to themself. _That's a bit rude of our mysterious "Chara"..._

"oh," Napstablook spoke up, their voice low and echoey. "I'm REAL funny." This shocked Kris a bit before they grew a smile, as Napstablook appeared to have responded to the **CHECK** message.

Kris also heard a soft gasp in the air, responding to Napstablook's comment as well, although it was hard to pinpoint where exactly it came from.

It was now Frisk's turn, and as usual, they chose to flirt with Napstablook. Kris had to shake their head in disbelief as they did so.

"I'd just weigh you down." Napstablook said, rejecting Frisk's flirt. Frisk frowned before giving out a shrug, accepting their rejection.

Now it was Napstablook's turn. Tears fell from their eyes in a squiggle towards the floor before changing their trajectory at the last second towards the humans. Kris leapt to the side and picked Frisk up, holding them out of reach of the tears.

However, the duo didn't expect the tears to having any homing capabilities, causing Kris to have to jump all over the place as they attempted to keep Frisk from getting hit. Albeit, they didn't do so well to protect themselves, as they had to jump backwards into a couple tears to give themselves room.

By the time Napstablook finished their attack, Kris had taken 30 Damage while Frisk got hit once, losing 3 health. Nothing a Save Star couldn't reverse.

 _Although,_ Kris thought to themself. _If the candy here can be consumed as fast as Darkner food, would it also heal as fast as well?_

They had to at least test it out.

**> ITEM**

**-KRIS**

**-FRISK**

_Oh?_ Kris was shocked. They didn't realize they had separate inventories. If that was the case, then the duo could hold up to 52 items. Which meant a lot of food, armor, weapons (Although Kris could easily hold all of the armor and weapons they found without trouble), and key items amongst two people. Well, continuing on.

**> KRIS**

**> MNSTRCNDY**

_"Has a distinct, non-licorice flavor to it."_

_Heals 10 HP_

Kris popped a Monster Candy into their mouth, allowing it to dissolve. They noticed that their burns from the tear attack had shrunk in size, which meant that the two different candies did indeed share similar properties.

And the description was right. It did have a distinct, non-licorice flavoring.

Frisk's turn was up, and they decided to attempt cheering up Napstablook. And in return, Napstablook gave up a small chuckle upon receiving some praise.

Napstablook's turn came up next, but they didn't do anything. Kris and Frisk tilted their heads at the ghost.

"not really feeling up to it right now, sorry." Napstablook explained to the human duo, who nodded back in acceptance.

"Maybe you just need to be cheered up?" Frisk questioned Napstablook, which allowed Kris to realize they could do something like that, but with more power to it...

**> ACT**

**> Napstablook**

**> (K)(F) Cheer**

...a combined cheer, which had more emphasis than any normal cheer would show...

"..." Napstablook's quietness filled the room, making the duo feel like their attempt feel like they did something wrong. "heh... heh..."

Napstablook's tear attack came back one again, this time climbing the walls onto the ceiling. This would be a little bit easier for the humans to dodge, as the attack was only coming from one direction.

They managed to get through the attack with Kris being the only one hit once, taking 3 damage. Kris needed to get the situation under control, and fast if they didn't want to be hurt even further. They performed their last **ACT** again, hoping it could be enough.

"heh... let me try..." Napstablook said before releasing tears once again, only this time, they flew upwards to the top of their head, creating a brim of a hat.

"I call it 'dapperblook'" They said as their ghostly top hat was completed. "do you like it..."

This had Kris impressed, since Napstablook was never this jolly before. Also impressed by the use of their magic. They gave Napstablook a thumbs up and a friendly smirk, while Frisk had both thumbs up and a large grin.

"oh gee..." Napstablook softly spoke. "I usually come to the RUINS because there's nobody around..." The ghost paused for a moment. "but today I met some nice people..."

"...oh, I'm rambling again." Napstablook said as they turned transparent. "I'll get out of your way."

The duo were now left in an empty room, with two ways out (Minus the way they came through). They decided to go straight forward, wondering what was held in its chambers.

Which was just two spider webs of different sizes and a sign which read in english, "Spider Bake Sale."

"All proceeds go to real spiders." Frisk read what was underneath. "7 G for a Spider Donut and 18 G for a Spider Cider." Kris had to wonder about this. _Why were there spiders having a bake sale, and why the proceeds?_

But, you know. Kris did eat strange things (Like the moss that entity made them eat while in prison), so maybe this would be a change in taste. They checked their currency pouch.

While they were down in that hole memorizing the path, they managed to encounter and spare several monsters, who dropped their gold coins. They also noticed something odd about these gold coins, as compared to the money they had before the Angel's Heaven happened.

While their gold had some intricate engravings, such as Washington State's biggest powerplant (Which was located inside a mountain) or some huge skyscraper in Big Apple City, these gold coins just had a number and the letter G stamped onto it, with larger numbers equating to a larger size. A very old style of currency.

What also bothered them was that the Gold was stamped in English, and not in Ancient Monster Runes like what they have seen around the Ruins (Besides this bake sale poster and that sign in the candy room).

They could go for some food to heal their magic wounds, so they picked out 21 G from their collection and placed it onto the smaller of the two webs. A spider came down and carried it out of sight, much to the surprise of Kris and to the delight of Frisk.

A few seconds later, three spiders returned, each carrying a spider donut. Kris grabbed all three donuts and thanked them.

They checked the donut. It looked like a plain sour cream donut that was dyed purple. They couldn't tell at all why it was called a "Spider Donut" in the first place. They took a bite out of it.

They immediately learned why it had that name, because inside the donut were the legs of dead spiders.

Well, they've eaten weirder things before.

You know.

_**Moss. And Tree Salsa. Maybe a leaf here and there.** _

So while this was out of the ordinary, it definitely didn't top their list of the strangest things they ate before. They finished the last of the donut, healing 12 HP of their missing 23 health.

Kris tore apart another donut and handed half to Frisk. "Here, kiddo. Heal up." Frisk looked at the donut for a couple seconds before eating it, restoring their lost health. Kris popped their half before storing their last Spider Donut into their inventory.

They left the sales room and walked through their only other option, finding themselves in a large hallway with three Froggits lounging about.

"Oh, don't you dare." Kris whispered to themself with unease. They did not want to be attacked by three more Monsters after their encounter with a slightly less depressed Napstablook.

Kris watched as Frisk strolled over to the first Froggit and began a conversation with it. As Kris did not want to participate in the conversation, they walked over to the wall behind the Froggits and slumped against it. It was only them and their mind right now, with the Froggits' ribbits being background noise.

**ribbit**

Kris jumped from the wall in surprise, startling the others in the hall for a moment. Kris looked closely at the wall they were once leaning on before noticing a tiny Froggit sitting in the cracks. It gave out another small **ribbit** before waving a tiny forearm at Kris.

Kris awed at the tiny Froggit and waved back. "Hey, kiddo!" They shouted as they turned towards Frisk. "Come check this out! There's a tiny Froggit in the cracks!"

Frisk sped their way towards the teen and glanced at where they were pointing. It took them a while before they managed to spot the small Froggit, and when they did...

You could tell they were holding back a loud squeal from the cuteness that was of a miniature version of these Monsterkind. "How can anything that cute be this tiny!?"

"I seriously don't know." Kris responded. "I've never seen one this small before."

The duo awed at the small Froggit for several minutes before waving goodbye to it, content with the level of cuteness it brought.

Frisk made their way over to the remaining two Froggits in the room, with Kris following behind. Bored, they looked around the room.

They could have sworn they saw a yellow flower going back into the dirt.


End file.
